Americans living in the nation’s northern-most city saw the sunset on Nov. 18, and they won’t see it rise again until Jan. 22, 2026.
Formerly known as Barrow, the town of Utquiagvik sits on Alaska’s Arctic Coast, about 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle and adjacent to Point Barrow, which is considered the northernmost point of all U.S. territory. It is home to nearly 5,000 people, most of whom are Inupiaq, a Native American people.
At approximately 1:36 p.m. local time, the sun dipped below the horizon for the last time of 2025. It won’t completely clear the horizon again for 64 days. This phenomenon is called the Polar Night, and it is experienced by communities all over the world at higher latitudes as the Earth continues its annual tilt on its axis, bringing the northern hemisphere into winter and moving places like Utquiagvik out of the sun’s line of sight….